


exercise in being

by annperkinsface



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-26 14:22:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10788489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annperkinsface/pseuds/annperkinsface
Summary: There are potted plants by the window. Relena’s smile blinds when she spots them; she touches their leaves gently, as if it's something precious and irreplaceable and not bought in a carefully calculated attempt at normal.





	exercise in being

There are potted plants by the window. Relena’s smile blinds when she spots them; she touches their leaves gently, as if it's something precious and irreplaceable and not bought in a carefully calculated attempt at normal. Heero leans against the wall and observes, trying to make sense of her in the context of his apartment. It's strange, this overlap of past and present and maybe future, but he watches the soft curve of her cheek and is cognizant of his softening in turn and thinks: but not unwelcome.   
  
"I never knew your thumb was so green, Heero.”   
  
Heero snorts, though he's gratified to see the smile in her voice on her face when she turns and faces him. "I don't think remembering to water and provide adequate sunlight constitutes a green thumb.”   
  
“Oh, but it does. I can't keep a fish alive, much less plants,” Relena says blithely and his mouth twitches, entirely involuntarily. Her eyes catch it, brightening, and Heero gives himself over to it, because there’s no controlling his reactions when she's around, not since he woke up on a beach to a girl and she upset the framework of his universe.   
  
At fifteen she might have been dumbstruck. At twenty she’s already stepping into his space and touching his mouth, craning her head back to look at him. “Heero,” Relena murmurs, his smile widening under her fingers. She’s standing so close. He was never supposed to allow her this close. He was never supposed to know her at all.

Yet here he is, plants by the windows and piles of books in the corners and clothes strewn over the back of the couch. Her fingers on his mouth and sunlight in her hair. Allowing himself to take up space, to learn how to stand still. Growing roots. There's danger in complacency but also in denial. Heero lives life with eyes open, clear. He lives.

 _I wasn’t supposed to_ , he doesn't have to say.

He murmurs her name, eyes bright.

She kisses him first, pushing up on her toes. Her fingers sliding over his cheek and into his hair, her teeth pressing into his lip. Soft and hard, paradoxically, or it would be if it were anyone else. Instead it’s just perfectly Relena and he groans, eyes fluttering shut while she grins against his lips. He grips her waist, learning the shape of it with his hands while she learns the inside of his mouth.

When it's done Relena frames his face in her hands and looks at him. Her mouth is soft. Her eyes are softer. One beat, two, then she’s leaning up and pressing her lips to the skin underneath his right eye.

“I like your apartment, Heero,” Relena says, stroking her thumbs over his cheeks. She’s smiling. So is he. His hands come up to hold her wrists.

“It could use some fish,” he says, and turns his head to kiss her.

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be a whole other thing but writing rust had other plans. I just have a lot of feelings about heero learning to live a normal life okay.


End file.
